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Youtube and Facebook 'blocked' in Kashmir

Local media reports that popular social media websites have been blocked throughout the restive state.

02 Oct 2012 00:57 GMT

The move to block YouTube is seen as a response to the protests against the anti-Islam video [Al Jazeera]

Popular websites Youtube and Facebook have been blocked in Indian-administered Kashmir, local media reported.

Internet users in Kashmir were unable to access Facebook and YouTube after the Indian government had issued orders to Internet service providers to restrict access to the websites, IBNLive reported on Monday.

The move is believed to be "in response to the protests against the anti-Islam video on YouTube but it now seems that access to the entire websites have been restricted", IBNLive reported.

In late September, reports indicated that the Jammu & Kashmir state government had told service providers to ensure that the controversial YouTube video was not accessible by users in the troubled state.

Mass protests broke out in Kashmir in September over the anti-Islam film posted on YouTube that drew outrage from large parts of the Muslim world.

The order to block the video was issued by the state Home Department, invoking the powers conferred under section 5(2) of the Indian Telegraph Act 1885.

Responding to the blocking of YouTube and Facebook, Hameeda Nayeem, chairperson of the Kashmir Centre of Social and Development Studies (KCSDS), told Al Jazeera "surveillance of social media websites in Kashmir was not new".

"In 2010 (during the protests), Facebook was monitored and many boys were arrested because of their activities on Facebook," she said.

"There has always been surveillance ... the latest move is based on that blasphemous film, but it is just another excuse to monitor and block communication services. For instance, SMS services have often been turned off in the state".

Internet censorship

A Greater Kashmir newspaper report on Sunday said that telecom providers had confirmed that a block was in place.

“Basically government has issued a directive to block the Facebook but other services are functioning,” Ataullah Haque, General Manager of the Reliance (J&K) said.